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When you want to know more about the people in the stands, in the audience or online, you need a full 360-view. That’s where FanThreeSixty comes in. CEO Troy Tetzlaff joins the podcast to give us insight into their fan data platform, corporate culture, and how to speak up and be heard. In our marketing tip we are taking a look at whether you should be on every social media platform.
Transcript:
Jeff Randolph:
Welcome to the Small Business Miracles podcast. I’m Jeff Randolph. This Small Business podcast is brought to you by EAG Advertising & Marketing. We’re going to talk about marketing and we’re also here to celebrate entrepreneurs. We have marketing news and advice that business owners can use to keep moving forward. This week we sit down with Troy Tetzlaff, CEO at FanThreeSixty. But first, we’ve got another small business marketing tip to talk about.
Should you be on every social media platform? It’s an interesting question and we have some thoughts. There are a ton of social media platforms out there besides the ones that we all know and love or know and hate. Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Snapchat, TikTok, you know all those, and you may have accounts already on most of them, but there are also a million new ones in development all the time. That way, once I discover and start using it, my daughter can leave the platform because now it’s lame.
For your business, we want to protect your brand. So if you see some up-and-coming social media sites or even some of the giant ones, make sure you have an account on there that protects your brand name. But that doesn’t mean you need to be active and ever put any content out there. Small businesses don’t have the luxury of being everywhere. That takes time, that takes money. Even with platforms that publish across multiple social media sites at the same time, it’s a lot of time and attention to be there and know what people are saying about you and to you. So just don’t.
Pick the ones where your customers are right now. Those are the ones you should be paying attention to. When your ongoing customer survey work tells you that there’s a new one on the horizon that your customers are actually using, start to be there if it makes sense for your business. But don’t feel bad if you leave the others behind. Prioritize your marketing and focus on being where your audience is. And that’s our tip for today.
Welcome back to the show. I am here with Troy Tetzlaff. He is the CEO of FanThreeSixty. Troy, welcome to the show.
Troy Teztlaff:
Thanks for having me. I’m really excited to be here with you all.
Jeff Randolph:
The pleasure is all on this side of the table, really. Tell us about FanThreeSixty. What is FanThreeSixty? Give us an overview.
Troy Teztlaff:
No, what is FanThreeSixty? Our tagline is data fueled, results driven. So we’re mainly a data analytics company with data at the center. We help our clients in sports or live entertainment or venue management really understand their fans, their members, their patrons. And then help optimize things for their business, ticket sales, digital marketing. We offer many products, email, texting, mobile app to help them accomplish their goals but be more targeted, segmented for better results.
Jeff Randolph:
Oh, you know, in targeting and segmenting, you’re speaking our language.
Troy Teztlaff:
I like that.
Jeff Randolph:
We do like the targeting and the segmenting here. Well, let’s dive into some of the insights that you give clients because you’re using real-time modeling and machine learning to give clients things like lead scoring and recency, frequency, monetary analysis, which is amazing. And to help understand the likelihood of renewing tickets. Tell us what you’ve been able to do for clients?
Troy Teztlaff:
Yeah, I think it really varies a lot by client. Some are very digital marketing focused. So it’s fan base growth, it’s engagement with the mobile app, and increasing those rates, day over day. Because we think it’s 365 days you should be on your mobile app, not just during the season.
Jeff Randolph:
Oh, of course, if you’re a real fan.
Troy Teztlaff:
If you’re a real die-hard fan.
Jeff Randolph:
If you’re a real fan.
Troy Teztlaff:
We have categories for the real die-hard fan of course. But four times ROI for University of Kansas when they started using our solutions. So that was a really good result. We’ll do things very targeted as well. As an example, one of our clients was having trouble selling some tickets for a home game against an opponent. It was near Veterans Day. So they decided to use our information around likely veteran or active duty to help give them ticketing offers.
Jeff Randolph:
Outstanding.
Troy Teztlaff:
At the same time, they did use our last-minute ticket buyer algorithm. So we look at different factors of fans to help predict, are they a last-minute ticket buyer? So distance to venue, things like that. Are they engaged with the brand? And help them increase their ticketed sales with basically two email campaigns for $80,000. And that was things that we could accumulate for the team to make it so much more efficient for them. So that’s just one of those examples where if you can get the information organized in a way, have it presented for better decision-making, and also just to be a lot more efficient.
Jeff Randolph:
Right. Right. Well I can assume that the organization size has a lot to do with that. KU Athletics is huge and we’re talking about big numbers of ticket sales and you’ve got a good staff of people there to help support that.
Troy Teztlaff:
Correct.
Jeff Randolph:
But if you have a one-person ticket shop, they can’t possibly come up with a plan to deal with this kind of data and in an actionable way. But you’ve been able to do that.
Troy Teztlaff:
Yeah, exactly. For instance, one of our clients is United Soccer League. We work with the league and also individual clubs throughout the United States. One of the clubs just used a ticketing promotion, mobile-only offer for merchandise sales, and they saw a spike of $3,000 in one day for the merchandise sales. Now at the same time, that’s a nice number for them, right?
Jeff Randolph:
Sure, sure.
Troy Teztlaff:
But at the same time, they were targeting people who are active mobile users who had bought in the past, give them offers. And you get those kind of results.
Jeff Randolph:
Wow. It’s just activating their fan base because you know the data, you have access to the data and you’ve built an infrastructure around it.
Troy Teztlaff:
Correct.
Jeff Randolph:
That’s amazing. Special Olympics is a new client that you just picked up as well. Special Olympics of Kansas.
Troy Teztlaff:
That’s correct.
Jeff Randolph:
Friends of ours, friends of ours at EAG as well. Tell me about that, because they don’t have a ticketed price for that. So they don’t really know who’s in the stand or what’s going on around that.
Troy Teztlaff:
Exactly. When we initially had conversations with Special Olympics Kansas, it was very exciting to hear about their goals as an organization, the outreach, the connectedness. And as you bring up, better identifying who’s at their event? Is it athlete, is it volunteers? So they’re using our mobile app that we worked with them on and functionality within it, just a membership card. So now you can scan a membership card as you enter the venue, as you come in to volunteer, and now they know exactly who’s there, who showed up.
They can keep a history of it, they can do better outreach as far as volunteers that have volunteered two or more times. Have a better interaction with them, have a better experience, let alone their athletes. And understanding what athletes are highly engaged, showing up to multiple events, all those types of things. And then even goes to the parents and their friends and family. Yeah, it’s a pretty exciting partnership. We just got started earlier this year and we’re really looking forward to how we can leverage that at their events going forward.
Jeff Randolph:
Well, when you bring on clients like KU Athletics and Special Olympics at the same time, that says a lot about the product itself. But also I’ll transition this into the work hard, play hard piece because I know growth has had you hiring on a fairly regular basis. I look at your Facebook feed and I see that those great work hard, play hard moments like the skee-ball tournament or ping pong tournaments at an arcade or desk decorating contest, that speaks to culture, and we of course love hearing about the intentional building of culture. What is that, that culture you’re creating at FanThreeSixty?
Troy Teztlaff:
Yeah, culture is an interesting work because there’s so many facets to it. But just the work hard, play hard, at least for me, my job’s kind of to get out of the way. To set a direction, like what are the types of things that I think we should do as a team? Set the budget, have associates, our associates form a team themselves, help them come up with ideas. And then what we’ve been doing is having voting on those events.
And I think a big thing is doing something different and that appeals to our associates and is often a surprise. So we have an event coming up actually in a couple of weeks where we’ll get together at Up-Down, just after a company meeting in the morning, and then we will go have some fun, play some games, play some skee-ball. But I also think it comes down to a little bit of a surprise too.
Jeff Randolph:
Oh, yeah.
Troy Teztlaff:
One time last summer, and it just happened to be 98 degrees just like yesterday.
Jeff Randolph:
Just like it is around here right now.
Troy Teztlaff:
Yes. And we had an ice cream truck come in after a meeting and people didn’t expect it. It was like they were little kids again going up and getting their favorite drumstick. But that was something that I think helps build our culture.
And then it’s the behaviors, and you have to model behaviors. We believe really big in empowerment and bringing on great people, setting a direction, but then getting out of the way. Let the associates help develop that culture as well. And I think we got a really open, relaxed work, hybrid policy, work from home on a couple of days a week really helps as well. So give our associates the flexibility, but then they pay us back with the hard work as part of it.
Jeff Randolph:
Man, this sounds like everything that is ideal. Surprise and delight is a great way to go, whether you’re talking about your Facebook followers or employees. Well done.
Troy Teztlaff:
Thanks.
Jeff Randolph:
What is next for FanThreeSixty? Where do you go from here?
Troy Teztlaff:
I think what we’ve seen with our company as far as our clients, we’ve been focusing more on live entertainment venues. So I think one of our big clients are Nederlander Theaters, I can mention them. So they are live theaters throughout the West Coast, throughout the United States. They use our mobile app to help better understand their fans and digitally market.
I think you’ll see us start to push more into the entertainment space because the problems are still there, just like a University of Kansas football game, who’s in my venue? Those are the same questions they’re asking, how do I grow my base to go to come to my events? So I think we’ll push more into that area.
And then I think we’re always looking for the next innovation to help our clients plan things. So instead of focusing on how do I optimize ticket sales for one game? Could be what are the 10 strategies I need to use to optimize ticket sales for my whole season? And using data and trends to help predict and give ideas instead of just starting with zero.
Jeff Randolph:
Absolutely.
Troy Teztlaff:
So we’re really looking forward to innovating in that regard from a product perspective. And I think that’s going to help us position ourselves differently of really helping our clients plan, execute things with data at the base.
Jeff Randolph:
Outstanding. That’s everything I’ve wanted to know about FanThreeSixty. I think it’s time to go into the lightning round.
Troy Teztlaff:
I like it.
Jeff Randolph:
So that we can figure out more about you and what drives you and all of that kind of stuff. Are you ready for that?
Troy Teztlaff:
Let’s do it.
Jeff Randolph:
Okay, here we go. You have no way to know anything that we might possibly talk about in this one. And I’ll start out with, you are a former chemist.
Troy Teztlaff:
Yes.
Jeff Randolph:
Master’s degree in organic photochemisty. What should the rest of us know about photochemistry that we don’t already know?
Troy Teztlaff:
That is very interesting question. Chemistry is everywhere we look, right? And I think instead of giving the chemistry Ted talk, what I will do because the viewership may go down.
Jeff Randolph:
I’m going to a ten-minute photochemistry set here.
Troy Teztlaff:
But I can talk about how I use my skills from being a chemist in every day at work and in life. And I think what drew me to become a chemist was the problem-solving aspect. Helping fix things, experimenting like, “Let’s try this.” But having a reason and a thought behind it, coming up with a plan. And I think I brought that to my business career and it’s something that I use every day at FanThreeSixty. It’s we shouldn’t wait for everything to be perfect, but let’s have a plan and a thought.
Jeff Randolph:
How outstanding, yeah.
Troy Teztlaff:
And then let’s experiment and then let’s look at the results and adjust.
Jeff Randolph:
Yeah, because you were a research scientist at little startups like Pfizer and Procter & Gamble.
Troy Teztlaff:
Yeah, small companies.
Jeff Randolph:
Were you working on anything exciting for that? There was one guy that we came across who invented Tide PODS basically.
Troy Teztlaff:
Oh, wow.
Jeff Randolph:
And you just go, “Whoa, hey, you’ve done some things.” Were you working on anything exciting at those places?
Troy Teztlaff:
There was a couple big projects I was on. One was helping make Xalatan, which was a glaucoma medication at the time. It was a billion dollar drug at the time. But what was interesting is the doses was so small, you made it only once every 18 months.
Jeff Randolph:
Oh, wow.
Troy Teztlaff:
So we were responsible for making that one time.
Jeff Randolph:
Basically, the same product.
Troy Teztlaff:
So to be mixing something up in a big vat and know it’s worth a billion dollars, it was kind of stressful. But then also is optimizing a lot of processes to make drugs. You’re probably aware of allergy medications like Flonase, things like that. So it was a really great time in my career, I learned a lot. But also I think it strengthened my understanding of what I wanted to do in the future. And I think that’s a career lesson for anyone, right?
Jeff Randolph:
Sure.
Troy Teztlaff:
How do you use your skills to then push yourself forward?
Jeff Randolph:
Yeah. How does this lead you to that? And I’ll come back to FanThreeSixty for a second. What is your sport? Do you have a sport?
Troy Teztlaff:
I love to golf.
Jeff Randolph:
Oh, perfect. Perfect.
Troy Teztlaff:
I don’t know that I’m a great golfer, but I love to golf. And then my secondary one is baseball. I love the Royals and I love that sport.
Jeff Randolph:
Gotcha. Good low handicap kind of golf or just a weekend warrior kind of golfer?
Troy Teztlaff:
I’m a single-digit handicapper that sometimes can get around there and other days it’s like I never golfed before.
Jeff Randolph:
I see you. I see you. I see you.
What is your favorite social media platform?
Troy Teztlaff:
Favorite social media platform I think is Instagram. I’m a little bit more visual and I also like the fact of being able to see aspects of a brand or a person, not just in the words, but what they portray through pictures in their vision.
Jeff Randolph:
Oh, outstanding. I know there’s a connection to soccer through the company founder, Cliff Illig. Kansas City is going to host a few early-round World Cup games in a couple of years. First, soccer, yes or no? Are you a fan? You follow or don’t follow?
Troy Teztlaff:
I definitely am a fan. I follow. Second quick answer is no, I don’t have a line on tickets, just in case you’re wondering.
Jeff Randolph:
That’s appropriate. Thanks for heading that one off. I do appreciate that.
Given the world that you live in at FanThreeSixty and understanding crowds and the way things work, what is Kansas City in for? Do you have any prediction about what happens when we host some World Cup games coming up?
Troy Teztlaff:
Boy, that’s a really large question. I think it’s going to be so exciting for the metro area. It’s going to put us on the map like we’ve never thought before because now we’re going to be on a world stage. And also the hosting, training sites for whatever teams get selected, I think is going to be so influential for the future of Kansas City as well. And putting our best foot forward as a region is going to be an amazing, I think an amazing point for us to build on as a metro going in the next decade.
That’s what I’m most excited about. We’re going to have so much activity from a fan activity in Kansas City around the metro. There won’t be a person that won’t be touched by the World Cup when we host it here.
Jeff Randolph:
Absolutely. When we hosted the World Cup in 1994, I lived in Chicago for about three weeks during that summer where I just lived there. That was where I went, and at an extended-stay hotel place. Everything’s crowded, but Chicago deals with that. For me, it was the pickup games of soccer where you just go to a random field and there are just a million different people out there who don’t know each other and somebody’s got a ball. And you go, “All right, you guys and us, and here we go. Let’s make this happen.”
Troy Teztlaff:
The common game, right?
Jeff Randolph:
Nobody spoke the same language. You just go crazy and have a great time.
Troy Teztlaff:
Right. It’s very cool.
Jeff Randolph:
Should be fun. Should be fun. When you think back to the path that got you to this point, was there a teacher or coach or mentor who gave you some business or life advice that you’ve really taken to heart and you remember all the time?
Troy Teztlaff:
Yeah, no, I’ve been very fortunate throughout my education and career to have great mentors. I think what was always amazing to me, looking back on it, was the greatest mentors are right place, right time for you, right?
Jeff Randolph:
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Troy Teztlaff:
To give you certain guidance. I can remember it was my transition from being a chemist into the business world, and my boss was always also my mentor. And he reflected to me, “Troy, you have great ideas, but you’re not talking enough. You’re not bringing it up. Be more assertive in a professional way because people need to hear your ideas.”
Jeff Randolph:
Oh, outstanding.
Troy Teztlaff:
And it was one of those things that was a great step forward for me because I could think through, “Oh, I’m going to come up with a great plan.” But if you don’t share it, people don’t know, right? It’s a very common sense thing, but being a new person in business, having to earn your stripes. But at the same time, if you don’t communicate, I always say, “If you don’t communicate to your boss what you want, how are you ever going to get it?” And I think that’s something that I learned from that. And also then focused on, “Hey, is this the time where I can help and bring ideas up and discuss it?” And I think it just pushed me in a different direction.
Jeff Randolph:
That’s great life advice.
Troy Teztlaff:
Yeah. So that really helped me in my career and helped me with that transition.
Jeff Randolph:
Oh, outstanding life advice. Yeah, you should follow that all the time. And right advice, right time, and it’s given us little things like Flonase, which I’m probably on right now. So thank you very much for that.
Troy Tetzlaff, I’m taking you out of the lightning round. Well done. You’ve survived that.
Troy Teztlaff:
Thank you so much. It was touch and go.
Jeff Randolph:
There’s nothing to it. Nothing to it at all. Let’s see. Tell everybody where they can learn more about FanThreeSixty and you and where would you send people?
Troy Teztlaff:
Yeah, so we’re all on the socials. It’s FanThreeSixty, one word, all spelled out. You can find us on Twitter, LinkedIn. And also our website, www.fanthreesixty.com. Just been upgraded and it’s a really good experience, and I think you’ll be able to quickly learn what we’re all about. Perfect.
Jeff Randolph:
Troy Tetzlaff, CEO at FanThreeSixty. Thanks for being with us today.
Troy Teztlaff:
Thanks a lot, Jeff. It was a lot of fun.
Jeff Randolph:
And that is our show. Thanks so much to our guest, Troy Tetzlaff. And thank you for listening to the Small Business Miracles podcast. Remember to subscribe. Leave us a five-star rating and review. Drop us a line on the website at eagadv.com, if you have any thoughts. Until then, we’ll be out here helping entrepreneurs with another small business miracle.